I Love Dyson (and YouTube)

I don't care what anybody says--I love my Dyson vacuum.

Robert bought one 5 or 6 years ago. The first time he used it, he had to empty it out 3 or 4 times while he did just one room. (He saved all the crud to show me what it had picked up.)

Maybe a year and a half ago, it started making a funny noise. I didn't know how expensive it would be to fix it, so I tried to do what I could to "fix" it myself. I didn't even know what was wrong with it, so I started looking up info on the the Internet. I noticed that the roller brush was cracking in a few places, so I got out my crazy glue and hoped that that would solve the problem, even if only for a little while. It didn't, but even with a broken vacuum, it still did a fairly good job of cleaning the carpet.

A couple of weeks ago, I had had enough--I wanted a working vacuum. Robert went on YouTube to see if there was a video on how to replace the roller brush on our vacuum. I was concerned that we would need special tools to do the job--we didn't, it could be done with just a screwdriver. Robert then ordered a new roller brush. A couple of days later, I replaced the new roller brush in the hopes that it would fix the vacuum. It didn't but I knew it then had to be one other thing--the clutch (it's what tell the vacuum to roll the brush for the carpet or not to roll the brush for bare floor)

So, back to YouTube to see if there was a video showing us how to replace the clutch. There was. While viewing the video I found out that there are two belts that are part of the clutch--one that attaches to the roller brush (this one was fine) and one that attaches to the motor (this one was broken). Once the clutch was out, the belt that attached to the motor could easily be replaced by undoing two screws.

Armed with knowledge, I then dismantled my Dyson. What other vacuum are you able to completely take apart? As I took off each piece, I washed it to get all of the dirt and yuck off of it--the cyclonic chamber was absolutely disgusting. If I hadn't stopped to wash everything, it probably would have taken less than 10 min. to get to the clutch and remove it. When Robert came home from work that day, he ran down to the local vacuum repair shop and bought the necessary belt. I could have bought it cheaper on eBay, but I didn't want to wait to have a working vacuum.

I now have a vacuum that works again! Had I known how easy and inexpensive it would be to fix it, I would have done it as soon as it started making funny noises. Once it was fixed, I couldn't wait to use it. I had to empty the canister 3 times while vacuuming the family room.

Thank you Dyson for designing a vacuum that can be taken apart and fixed by anyone!! And thank you YouTube for having videos showing me how to fix my vacuum!